The present invention relates to an electrical connector for electrically interconnecting a daughter board and a circuit board, and particularly to an electrical connector having improved terminals for electrically connecting to a circuit board by a variety of methods.
FIG. 6 is essentially a duplication of FIG. 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,252, wherein an electrical connector 200 comprises an insulative housing 70 and a plurality of S-shaped terminals 80 (only one being shown) received in the housing 70. A pair of contact ends 86 at opposite ends of each terminal 80 extend beyond the housing 70 for contacting a corresponding contact pad 96 of a daughter board 92 and a corresponding contact pad 96 of a circuit board 94. After assembling the daughter board 92 and the circuit board 94 to the connector 200, the two contact ends 86 are respectively compressed by the contact pads 96 thereby electrically connecting each terminal 80 to the daughter board 92 and the circuit board 94. The free contact ends 86 are arc-shaped so that they are not suitable to be soldered to the printed circuit board 94 by Surface Mounting Technology (SMT). Referring to FIG. 7, another type of terminal 60 is shown. The terminal 60 is electrically connected to a circuit board (not shown) by soldering a flat mounting end 64 of the terminal 60 to the circuit board using SMT. One contact end 62 of the terminal 60 forms a bump 622 for contacting a contact pad 66 of a daughter board (not shown). The solder may disintegrate allowing and thus the mounting end 64 of the terminal 60 to disengage from the circuit board when the contact pad 66 of the daughter board is pressed down and pushes against the bump 622. There is no terminal which can be reliably connected to such a contact pad of a circuit board both by compression contact and by SMT. Hence, an improved electrical connector is required to solve the problems of the prior art.